Major flaw in computing bumi equity target
By Lucky Star
Malaysiakini
Part 1: Has 30pct bumi equity target been achieved?
COMMENT At the initial stage of the New Economic Policy, privatised entity and government-linked companies (GLCs) were almost non-existent.
Khazanah Nasional Berhad, the main institution through which the federal government controls GLCs, only came into existence in 1993. Therefore, before 1990, the exclusion of government shareholding owned by Khazanah was a non-issue.
But, when the privatisation policy was vigorously implemented after the publication of the ‘Privatisation Master Plan’ in 1991, the exclusion of government shareholding in privatised entities and GLCs had a significant distorting effect on equity ownership by ethnic group.
Musa Hitam, in an exclusive interview in August 2014 with the Malaysian Insider said, “But the government does not take GLCs into account when they point out that the present bumiputera equity ownership is 24 percent. We are deluding ourselves by continuously pointing a finger at the Chinese.” As a former deputy prime minister and chairperson of a GLC, Musa definitely knew what he was talking about.
For the purpose of showing bumiputera equity ownership, government data are divided into three categories of bumiputera, namely:
1) Bumiputera individuals
2) Bumiputera institutions
3) Bumiputera trust agencies
Read the rest of this entry »
Has 30pct bumi equity target been achieved?
By Little Stars
Malaysiakini
COMMENT At the outset, we wish to make it abundantly clear that we fully support the New Economic Policy (NEP) objective of eradicating poverty irrespective of race and we completely agree with the 30 percent bumiputera equity ownership target.
In a multiracial country, social engineering using affirmative action to uplift the economic status of a lagging community is necessary. We do not doubt the noble intention of the founding fathers of NEP and we believe the objectives can be achieved if right policies are formulated and implemented.
Government in any part of the world is usually quick to claim credit for any success. However, in the case of Malaysia, with regard to the achievement of 30 percent bumiputera equity ownership target, the government seemed to be more inclined to declare “failure”.
Read the rest of this entry »
‘Farcical’ Sabah RCI let Projek IC masterminds off the hook, Anwar says
Posted by Kit in Anwar Ibrahim, Sabah on Saturday, 6 December 2014, 7:45 am
The Malay Mail Online
Dec 5, 2014
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 5 — Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said today the findings of the royal commission set up in 2012 to investigate the abnormal spike in Sabah’s foreigner population was not only “farcical”, but had also failed to bring to book the real culprits behind the problem.
The Opposition Leader noted that the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) report released Wednesday had placed the blame squarely on errant civil service runners for what he described as the “biggest illegal immigrant scandal” in Malaysian history since independence.
Anwar said the report, which was 366 pages long, contained mere “meaningless” texts that saw all government agencies and departments completely exonerated of any culpability in the scandal, which has now resulted in nearly 30 per cent of Sabah’s 3.12 million population made up of foreigners.
“The masterminds and the real culprits responsible for the nefarious importation into Sabah of illegal immigrants from southern Philippines and Indonesia are completely off the hook,” he said.
“Even more glaring is the utter failure to mention the role of the National Security Council as well as the Prime Minister’s Department, let alone attribute any blame on them, notwithstanding the overwhelming evidence to that effect,” he added. Read the rest of this entry »
Umno abandoning youths, not the other way round, analysts say
By Zurairi AR and Shazwan Mustafa Kamal
The Malay Mail Online
December 6, 2014
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 6 ― As more youths migrate to urban areas, Umno can no longer blame its waning support on federal opposition pact Pakatan Rakyat (PR), analysts said when weighing in on the recent call for “rejuvenation” by the ruling party’s youth wing.
Instead, the failure to capture the support has been the result of the 65-year-old party’s disconnect with the younger set of voters compared to the pull PR has over youths or urbanites, they suggested.
“Any party that wishes to garner support from urban areas, or youths who have migrated to cities, must transform themselves,” Prof Dr Jayum Jawan, a political analyst with the National Professor Council, told Malay Mail Online in a recent phone interview.
“They should know the ‘taste’ of the urbanites, the youths. They have to understand the aspirations of the youths. Not for the youths to understand the parties instead.”
Jayum suggested that while PR component parties may not be empathetic towards the demographic, they at least understand the “lingo” of the youths.
“They dance to the youths’ rhythms. They try following their ‘taste’, their way of talking. Their tone fits with the youths. Umno should be like that as well, why can’t it?” Jayum asked.
According to the Universiti Putra Malaysia lecturer, it is “unscientific” and an “indefensible argument” to assume tha youths will automatically flock to PR just because they migrate to urban areas.
Prof Dr Shamsul Adabi Mamat, a political science lecturer with Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, claimed that while majority of young urbanites might vote for PR, it is however far from a lost cause for Umno. Read the rest of this entry »
Post-Sabah RCI, the merry-go-round goes on
By Kim Quek
Malaysiakini
Dec 5, 2014
COMMENT The royal commission of inquiry (RCI) report exonerating the Barisan Nasional (BN) government of responsibility in the gargantuan illegal immigrant calamity in Sabah must have stunned, shocked and disgusted many who had been eagerly looking forward to this RCI report for some relief and justice.
The RCI, instead, attributes the entire blame on errant civil servants who have carried out such illegal activities for profit.
Who on earth could have believed such blatant whitewash when an influx of Muslim illegal immigrants from southern Philippines and Indonesia over a sustained period of decades has caused Sabah’s population to explode to five times its 1970 numbers (3 times the growth rate of other states)?
Also the fact that monumental evidences have been produced both before and during the hearing of the RCI of the massive conversion of these illegals into voters (popularly known as phantom voters) to rob the original Sabahans of their sovereignty?
Have our defence forces, police, immigration department, national registration department (NRD) and the entire cabinet under the BN government been in deep slumber all these decades while millions of foreigners swarmed over Sabah until they outnumbered the original inhabitants who were impoverished in the process?
Could a few corrupt civil servants motivated by greed have engineered and achieved such a fantastic feat that has drastically and illegally altered the demographic and power balance of such a huge state without a powerful command from the top hierarchy of the government? Read the rest of this entry »
Oil slide threatens Malaysia’s fiscal progress
By Andy Mukherjee
Reuters
December 3, 2014
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
Just when Malaysia was beginning to plug the holes in its public finances, the prospect of a sharp reduction in oil revenue is threatening to undermine fiscal progress and weaken the currency.
Petronas is playing spoiler. The state energy company recently warned that its contribution to the government’s exchequer – in the form of dividends, taxes and royalties – could slide 37 percent next year from an estimated 68 billion ringgit ($20 billion) in 2014.
Such a shortfall in the main source of government’s oil-and-gas revenue would easily exceed 2 percent of GDP. That would wipe out the 1.7 percent of GDP in annual savings the government hopes to achieve by scrapping domestic fuel subsidies from Dec. 1.
The fiscal hit could be even larger if oil prices next year remain below the $75 a barrel on which Petronas based its forecast. That would threaten the government’s target of reducing the budget deficit to 3 percent of GDP, from an estimated 3.5 percent this year.
The finance ministry is refusing to give up on the 2015 target just yet. It may hope that Petronas can be persuaded to make a less drastic cut in its dividend payment. Read the rest of this entry »
Germany jails Islamic State jihadist Kreshnik Berisha
Posted by Kit in Islamic state on Saturday, 6 December 2014, 12:04 am
BBC News
5 December 2014
A German man has been jailed for three years and nine months for joining Islamic State (IS) militants, in the first trial of its kind in Germany.
A court in Frankfurt convicted Kreshnik Berisha of membership of a foreign terrorist organisation.
Berisha avoided the heaviest sentence of 10 years after admitting he spent six months with IS in Syria last year.
German authorities believe more than 500 German citizens have travelled to fight for IS in Iraq and Syria.
The domestic intelligence agency estimates that 60 have died there in combat or suicide attacks, and 180 have returned to Germany, according to the AFP news agency. Read the rest of this entry »
ISIS in Gaza
Posted by Kit in Islamic state on Friday, 5 December 2014, 11:52 pm
by Khaled Abu Toameh
Gatestone Institute
December 5, 2014
When One Radical Group Believes Another Is Not Radical Enough
It is always dreamlike to see one Islamist terror group accuse the other of being too “lenient” when it comes to enforcing sharia laws. But it is not dreamlike when a terrorist group starts threatening writers and women.
That is what is happening these days in the Gaza Strip, where supporters of the Islamic State are accusing Hamas of failing to impose strict Islamic laws on the Palestinian population — as if Hamas has thus far endorsed a liberal and open-minded approach toward those who violate sharia laws.
Until this week, the only topic Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were talking about was how to rebuild homes and buildings that were destroyed during the last war between Hamas and Israel.
Now, however, almost everyone is talking about the Islamic State threats against poets, writers and women. Read the rest of this entry »
Do Sabahans Deserve the RCI They Got?
By Kee Thuan Chye
Yahoo! News
December 4, 2014
The Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on the illegal immigrants in Sabah has turned out to be a big disappointment.
We had hoped to get conclusive findings in its report – announced last Wednesday, almost two years after the hearings began in January 2013 – but instead, after the 43 days spent on hearing the testimonies of 211 witnesses, the months of writing the report and then the months of keeping Malaysians waiting for it to be announced, what the panel came out to tell us was that Project IC “probably existed”.
“Probably”? Project IC, which purportedly gave out citizenships illegally and systematically to immigrants in Sabah, has been in the Malaysian consciousness for decades. Former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad was even said to be the mastermind behind it, which accounts for why the scheme is called Project M as well. Those who were part of it testified to its existence at the RCI and named figures in high authority implicated in it.
And yet the RCI concludes that the whole operation was not politically motivated. It says the Government and political parties were not involved. It blames instead syndicates and former National Registration Department (NRD) officials out to make big bucks. Read the rest of this entry »
Najib would have lost his premiership and UMNO/BN kicked out of Putrajaya if the RCIIIS Report had been written and released before the 13th General Elections
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, Sabah on Friday, 5 December 2014, 4:46 pm
Datuk Seri Najib Razak would have lost his premiership and UMNO/Barisan Nasional kicked out of Putrajaya if the 368-page Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Illegal Immigrants in Sabah (RCIIIS) had been written and released before the 13th General Elections on May 5 last year.
If a Sabah state elections is held now, I have no doubt that UMNO/BN would be kicked out of state government and power by the single issue of the Report of the RCIIIS.
This is the measure of the disappointment, disbelief, disquiet and dismay which had greeted the release of the RCIIIS Report in Kota Kinabalu on Wednesday, both in Sabah and in Malaysia.
This may explain for the cloak-and-dagger arrangements for the launching of the Report of the RCIIIS, where the DAP MP for Kota Kinabalu Jimmy Wong, the DAP Sabah State Assemblyman for Kepayan Edwin Bosi, former Senator Maijol Mahap as well as NGO representatives were unceremoniously barred from the event, as if the authorities had something to hide instead of marking a historic event for the state and nation. Read the rest of this entry »
TI CPI 2014 nothing for Najib to crow about when he has done worse in TI CPI rankings in his five years as PM than Abdullah’s five years and Mahathir’s 22 years
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Najib Razak on Friday, 5 December 2014, 3:31 pm
There is nothing for the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak to crow about for Malaysia’s improvement in Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2014, moving up to 50th spot among 175 countries from the 53rd position last year.
Although any improvement is to be welcomed, there is no ground for Najib to be ectastic to talk about “not rest on our laurels”, as Malaysia has yet to achieve any laurels on the anti-corruption front under his premiership.
For the sixth consecutive year, the Najib premiership (2009-2014) has registered a lower TI CPI ranking than under the two previous Prime Ministers, Tun Mahathir and Tun Abdullah.
This is illustrated by the following chart on TI CPI 1995-2014:
| Prime Minister | Best ranking | Best score | Worst ranking | Worst score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mahathir | 23(1995) | 5.32/10 (1996) | 37 (2003) | 4.8/10 (2000) |
| Abdullah | 39(2004) | 5.1/10 (2005/7/8) | 47 (2008) | 5/10 (2004/6) |
| Najib | 50 (2013) | 52/100 (2013) | 60 (2011) | 4.3/10 (2011) |
No wonder of Mahathir had always boasted that corruption is worse now than during his 22 years as Prime Minister (although Abdullah can also make the same boast about his five-year premiership).
Read the rest of this entry »
I will ask for meeting with Zahid on the expiry of 480 hours on Dec. 18 to find out why the Home Minister is unable to fulfil his public oath that the police will start investigations within 24 hours of a report lodged against any individual over a sensitive issue
Sense and sensibility has not only abandoned the UMNO leadership and delegates at the UMNO General Assembly last week, but also after, so much so that UMNO Ministers are incapable of diligently and responsibly discharging their duties not just to UMNO, but even more important, to the nation and all Malaysians.
I will ask for a meeting with the Home Minister Datuk Seri Abdul Zaid Hamidi on the expiry of 480 hours on December 18 to find out why the Home Minister is unable or incapable of fulfilling his public oath that the police will start investigations within 24 hours of a report lodged against any individual who impinged on a sensitive issue.
It is more than a weeks since two DAP MPs, Teo Nie Ching (Kulai) and Kasthuri Patto (Batu Kawan), my political secretary Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud and DAP activist Syefura Othman lodged a police report against former Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Dr. Mashitah Ibrahim for her hate speech at the UMNO Wanita General Assembly calculated to incite inter-racial and inter-religious fear, tension and conflict with the despicable falsehood that the Chinese community in Kedah had committed the sacrilegious act of burning the Quran “page by page during a prayer ritual”.
Yesterday, together with DAP MPs Zairil Khir Johari (Bukit Bendera), Steven Sim (Bukit Mertajam) and Vincent Wu (Assistant National Organising Secretary), my political secretary Dyana Sofya and the two DAP Kedah State Assemblymen, Tan Kok Yew (Derga) and Teoh Boon Kok @ Teoh Kai Kok (Kota Darul Aman), as well as the PAS State Assemblyman for Kubang Rotan, Mohd Nasir Mustafa, I visited the Taman Anggerik market food court in Alor Setar where the sacrilegious act by the Chinese community was alleged by Mashitah to have taken place. Read the rest of this entry »
Kurds Defend Kobani From Islamic State
Posted by Kit in Islamic state on Friday, 5 December 2014, 10:20 am
Huffington Post/AP
12/04/2014
KOBANI, Syria (AP) — The men and women of Kobani call one another “heval” — Kurdish for ‘comrade’ — and fight with revolutionary conviction, vowing to liberate what they regard as Kurdish land from Islamic State group militants.
Amid the wasteland and destroyed buildings, a sense of camaraderie has developed among the town’s defenders who have for more than two months doggedly fought off the advances by the extremists.
Often, members of the same family can be found on the front lines.
Nineteen-year-old Shida’s father was a fighter before her. After he was killed, she gave up hopes of becoming an artist and decided she must follow in his footsteps to honor his example. She says her mother supports her decision. One of her six brothers is also fighting, the rest of her siblings are living in Turkey. Read the rest of this entry »
Report of the Commission of Enquiry on Immigrants in Sabah
- Read online via Google Drive
- Download report [15.3 MB] (right click on link; Save):-
Permanent secretariat in 199-word proposal
Malaysiakini
Dec 3, 2014
The royal commission of inquiry (RCI) on Sabah has made only one recommendation in its 376-page report – a permanent secretariat to address the problem of illegal immigrants in the state.
In its long-awaited report unveiled today after two years of exhaustive inquiry, the RCI came up with a 199-word recommendation where the main plank is for the government to set up another committee.
The four-paragraph recommendation also proposed the setting up of a management committee on foreigners with extensive powers to support the permanent secretariat.
However, the RCI stressed that if the concept of such a management committee is not acceptable to the government, there is the choice of forming a consultative council on immigrants and foreigners. Read the rest of this entry »
The Sabah RCI report in a nutshell
By Ram Anand
Malaysiakini
Dec 3, 2014
The Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) report on illegal immigrants in Sabah was finally released today in Kota Kinabalu after much delay.
The commission was first mooted in 2012, and had hearings beginning Jan 14 up until Sept 2013.
It heard 211 witnesses before the findings of the commission were submitted to the federal government in May this year.
Former Borneo chief judge Steve Shim headed the five-man panel which heard testimonies from the witnesses, which included former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and PKR de-facto leader Anwar Ibrahim.
Over the course of the hearings, nobody took blame for the projects and operations that granted these citizenship to immigrants.
Despite being widely blamed for the “Project IC” or “Project M”, Mahathir denied knowledge of any such covert operations. Read the rest of this entry »
Six reasons oil’s price plunge has shaken the markets
Malcolm Maiden
The Age
December 2, 2014
Oil is a key economic input and its price has fallen sharply. All things being equal, that’s a plus for global growth, but the markets are in turmoil. Here are six key reasons why oil’s price plunge has the markets gyrating.
THIS IS AN OIL PRICE SHOCK
In 2011, 2012 and last year oil averaged $US95.13 a barrel, $US94.15 a barrel and $US98.05 a barrel respectively, a spread of just $US3.90. It averaged $US100 a barrel in the first six months of this year and got to $107.26 a barrel on June 20. Monetary policy was still loose and the consensus was that the oil price would not move sharply in either direction.
Instead, it tipped into an accelerating price slide, to about $US75 a barrel ahead of last week’s meeting of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). It hit $US66.15 a barrel on Monday, after the world’s biggest producer, Saudi Arabia, failed to back OPEC production cuts, and was still below $US70 a barrel on Tuesday despite a 3 per cent-plus bounce. Investors didn’t see the price slide coming, and haven’t worked out what it means. Read the rest of this entry »
Sarawak and Sabah State Assemblies should meet first to take a stand on the issue before a bill is presented to Parliament on amendment to the Sedition Act to categorise calls for secession of Sarawak and Sabah from Malaysia as sedition offences
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, Parliament, Sabah, Sarawak on Wednesday, 3 December 2014, 1:17 pm
Last Friday, I had pointed out the gross injustice of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak in buckling under pressure to the rightists and extremists in UMNO and UMNO-sponsored NGOs to renege on his promise in 2012 to repeal the repressive colonial law of Sedition Act and to announce its strengthening by roping in calls for secession of Sarawak and Sabah from Malaysia as offences under the Sedition Act without consulting the two states.
DAP does not support any call for secession of Sarawak and Sabah from Malaysia but we also do not support the retention and amendment of Sedition Act by adding new offences as calling for secession of Sarawak and Sabah from Malaysia as sedition crimes under the Act.
Nobody is surprised at the cavalier and contemptuous treatment meted out by UMNO to MCA, Gerakan and MIC leaders (PPP President had cogently spelt out the rules of the game for these Barisan Nasional component parties – “There are only two rules in the game: the boss is always right. If the boss is wrong, refer back to Rule 1.” ) but it violates a fundamental principle of the Malaysia Agreement when legislation directly affecting Sarawak and Sabah are not made in consultation with the two states.
Do the people, governments and legislatures of Sarawak and Sabah agree that the Sedition Act should be “strengthened” by the amendment to make calls for secession of Sarawak and Sabah from Malaysia as sedition offences? Read the rest of this entry »
Advice for Umno
– Aslam Abd Jalil
The Malaysian Insider
1 December 2014
The United Malays National Organisation (Umno) General Assembly 2014 kicked off last week. It was a grand event as always with a total of 2,752 delegates from around the country attending. Let’s put aside how biased the mainstream media was in covering the event, using government machinery like Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) or even private media companies. Thanks to the extensive media coverage though, I had the opportunity to watch live during the speeches delivered by important figures in Umno including the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak as well as Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
On the opening night, Muhyiddin was straightforward in pointing out the problems in Umno. According to him, there are five reasons why youth reject Umno. This includes the fact that the party was facing a trust deficit, a feudal party, practising a “yes-man” culture, being controlled by warlords and a culture of threatening by intimidation. In fact, he pointed out that youth who had great ideas were silenced from speaking out because they did not want to contradict their elders in the party. Due to that, one of the main focuses in this year’s Umno general assembly was how to engage with the youth in a way that Umno still became relevant, to paraphrase Najib’s words.
To be frank, I was initially quite happy to hear all this because the Umno leaders were bold enough to admit that these problems existed. I was interested in their focus on youth engagement. Clearly, Umno is trying hard to get more support from the youth as the voting demographics change. Yes, it is true that theoretically, Umno is not the Malaysian government and the Malaysian government is not Umno. But in reality, Umno dominates the current federal government of Malaysia. Therefore, whatever is in the agenda of Umno is most likely to be in the Malaysian government’s agenda. That is why, being a youth myself, I would like to voice my opinion regarding the youth engagement by Umno. Read the rest of this entry »
A Malaysia without Umno
Azrul Mohd Khalib
The Malay Mail Online
December 2, 2014
DECEMBER 2 — No, the reality of the political landscape in Malaysia is such that it is just not possible at the moment, to not have the United Malay National Organisation (should translate this into Bahasa Malaysia, no?).
Actually, when I really think about it, we have much to thank Umno for and we should be grateful. Indeed we have to bersyukur to them. Their continued presence and actions remind us of the work to be done.
For far too long we have been complacent and comfortable in enjoying the fruits of economic prosperity and have been placid in our engagement with the democratic process. We conveniently outsourced our civic duty and responsibilities to elected representatives and others.
Only when it hits our interests and our periuk nasi, do we wake up to discover the existence of laws passed decades ago which infringe on fundamental human rights and are unconstitutional, the diminished stature of the Federal Constitution due to the hundreds of amendments made to this bedrock document, and the erosion of institutions meant to ensure transparency, governance and accountability.
If anybody was sleeping before, this year’s Umno General Assembly was a rude wake up call. Read the rest of this entry »
